A vote for perseverance

Nov. 7, 2012 01:00 AMThe Republic | azcentral.com

No one should underestimate the hurdles President Barack Obama overcame to notch his razor-thin re-election victory over Republican Mitt Romney.

A stumbling, anemic economic recovery. A disastrous, deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Libya. And sharp, often bitter, political divisions that only grew as the seemingly eternal presidential race progressed.

At times it seemed the president was running against multiple opponents. He had highly partisan fights with Republican leaders in the House over the deficit, health-care reform, job creation and taxes.

And, of course, Obama became the savior of Sesame Street, securing the airwaves for Big Bird.

The weak economic recovery, especially, seemed to continually drag on his re-election chances. Yet Obama successfully identified core constituencies that turned out in amazing numbers on Tuesday, while at the same time stigmatizing Romney as a rich elitist. Strategically, the president won out.

As happened so often in 2008, luck worked in Obama's favor late in this year's race, too.

The national economy still may be anemic. But a slowly improving local economy in Ohio helped him in that key state. And his strong display of leadership in the wake of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast raised Obama's profile significantly on election eve.

In Arizona, Republican Senate candidate Jeff Flake won one of the most fiercely contested races in the country against Democrat Richard Carmona. Their ad campaigns were expensive and bitter. Ads sponsored by both candidates topped national lists of hard-edged negative advertising. Unsurprisingly, their debates were acrimonious, notably their joint discussion with TheArizonaRepublic editorial board.

Flake's victory constitutes a rare positive for Republicans in their failed effort to retake the U.S. Senate from Democrats. Every other contested Senate race in the country went to the Democrats.

It should be fair to conclude that Arizona voters prefer Flake's fiscal conservatism, while rejecting Carmona's attempt to tie him to the controversial votes of social conservatives in Congress.

Arizona's congressional races may be demonstrating why it is being seen increasingly as a "purple" state. Should trends hold, Arizona may be sending five Republicans and four Democrats to the U.S. House.

Republican Jonathan Paton held a slim lead late against former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick in sweeping District 1. And in the most hotly contested race in the state, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Vernon Parker remained neck and neck in urban District 9.

Surprisingly, former fighter pilot Martha McSally, the GOP candidate in southern Arizona's District 2, has held tough against Democrat Ron Barber, who enjoys the support of the beloved Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the terrible incident north of Tucson in 2011.

In one of the state's more quirky contests, Arizona Supreme Court Justice John Pelander survived an effort to oust him, and rather handily: by about a 3-1 vote.

Pelander had been targeted by conservative activists who felt his voting record failed to match their particular politics. The activists also fell far short in their effort to politicize the Arizona Court of Appeals. All of the appeals court judges were targeted, and all were retained by healthy margins.

The two most hotly contested measures on the ballot were defeated -- the sales-tax increasing Proposition 204 and Proposition 121, the so-called "top two" change in elections. Voters also rejected changing the manner in which judges are retained and the length of time they will serve, as Proposition 115 failed.

On the other hand, voters supported a proposal viewed as a "get tough on crime" measure (Proposition 114), and another viewed as protecting property tax rates (Proposition 117).

The local story of the night, however, may prove to be the large number of voters in Maricopa County who ran into ballot glitches, and so filled out provisional ballots.

A great number of those voters appear to be in predominately Hispanic neighborhoods, suggesting the strong get-out-the-vote effort there may have proved successful. Election experts speculated that many of the voters may be newly registered voters. And a lot of those voters likely were prompted to vote against one particular candidate: A certain sheriff of Maricopa County.